High Gear

conception:

I’m on the fence about whether or not you’ll see the characters in close up at any point. I have an idea of what they look like but it might wreck the aesthetic to see them full-sized in the game itself. Nevertheless, I had Ryan make concepts for each of the 4 playable characters, and I share them with you presently:

Tek:

Marshall:

Julie:

Sebastian:

I don’t know if games have been used much for autobiography, but each of these characters is based on a real person (in one case, an amalgam of two people). There was a house in West Oakland where we all lived together; I’ll let you conjecture about which one is me.

high gear!

Sorry not to blog on Friday as I usually do, I ended up in the ER last night. I have an ear infection apparently. I’ve been told this is rare for the over-10 crowd. Much trouble with my insurance; apparently I don’t have any. Or the insurance I was issued expanded, and when they expanded it they didn’t send me a new insurance card but instead sent me the old one again. I’m a bit lightheaded and on some incredibly expensive antibiotics right now. I might be digressing.

The big news being: we are in high fucking gear now! I’ve talked to Francesco and we’ve picked a projected release date for the first installment. The writing and design is going well and I’m feeling itchy, like I want to know the thing is actually going to go somewhere and I’m more than ready to throw myself into it. I’ll save our projection for later, but I have a turning point in my life coming up when my year of service with AmeriCorps ends and I have about 3 different states I might end up living in. I want to know where One-Eyed Monsters is going to be when that happens.

So it’s time to get kah-razy! Loren and I had a nice long chat today about backgrounds. It’s really good to have someone to discuss design with who is as thoughtful about design as he is. He’s drawn the first outline of the first background, and I’ve very happy with how it’s looking. It’s an urban environment, freely adapted from a real location in Oakland. The city is partially wrecked, so we went through various photos of ruins to decide what the feel is going to be. When he’s satisfied with the look of it, it will be posted promptly. Also, GDC is next week; wish him luck!

passing the basket.

It is now time to bring in more people! When a couple more pieces of artwork get finished we’ll be launching a series of devlogs at a few relevant webforums (it always feels so wrong to say “forums;” the word is “fora!”) and posting in the Unpaid Collaboration sections. We need artists and coders, and before long musicians.

I have a feeling this will be a case of passing the basket. Do you want to do a single animation? Draw a single background? Write a single loop of music? We’re talented people, we can adapt to our style. This community is large and people are busy. If you have anything to contribute, leave a comment or write me at mejicaboom (at) gmail (dot) com.

You’ll be hearing from us.